To Make It Clear

Anyone who knows me will probably wonder why I have not made more of the Bold Bertie's departure. Well, joy is somewhat tempered by the fact that Cowen is looming so fearfully, though I suppose FF is made of characters each as bad as the other, so whoever's up next is scary. Anyhow I am happy at Bertie's resignation. Justice has finally been done. Well, some of it anyway. 'History will look kindly...' is the phrase a lot of the television pundits have been allowing to escape with their sighs of relief. While I know why, it goes against the grain to be celebrating a criminal. And for me one of the worst crimes imaginable is a politician's abuse of power. Not only do they break the law, they assault a population (whether they know it or not) and damage, perhaps irrevocably, the social Good. It is the social contract that is compromised and once done, society's value system becomes unstuck and ultimately anything goes. Think of the many social ills that follow on from a nation's perverse admiration of 'the cute hoor'. That's why Haughey was so evil, and why the man he called 'the most devious of them all' should join him in infamy. Am I too harsh? Well, I tend to remind people of that time when Haughey was importing those expensive shirts from Paris while the shoplifter who stole a Penny's jacket hung himself in Mountjoy. Who was the greater criminal and whose the worse punishment?